Potential
by Fayah
Summary: Everyone has potential. For some, this potential will remain unrealized. For others, this potential may surface. And for Sawada Tsunayoshi, this potential was brought forth much earlier before his teenage years with the baby mafioso Reborn.  AU
1. Chapter 1

**Midnight; On a private flight to Italy**

"Sir, you have a phone call from your wife."

'Eeeh? My darling Nana called?' Iemitsu wondered, happy yet confused. He hadn't talked to her since leaving Japan and the separation was already starting to worry him. The Ninth had recently asked him to become the Vongola's external advisor, a highly sought after position that could warrant envy from his peers. Needless to say, Iemitsu had accepted; he had owed the familigia that much. But the position had meant choosing to leave his loving wife and 8 year old child back at home, away from his potential enemies in Europe.

"Thanks," he replied as he took the phone from the flight attendant. Immediately, he was met by the panicked voice of his wife.

"Nana?"

"I-Iemitsu?"

Iemitsu's eyes narrowed as his anxiety rose even higher. His wife rarely called him by his full name.

"T-Tsuna is missing!"

* * *

The missing boy in question was currently struggled to breath within the sealed space he was stuck in. He had no clue how he had gotten stuck in his situation. One minute he was wandering to the bathroom and then the next, there was a crash and he woke up to find himself in a dark, cramped space with clothes –and was that a _pickaxe?_ - as his only companions.

He had tried crying, screaming, wiggling, but to no avail. It had all died down to broken sobs which also quieted after he had found it harder and harder to breath.

'_I'm going to die…_'

A primal fear struck Tsuna. He had been scared of a lot of things in life –the dog down the street for one. And the scary jack-in the box, the potential monsters under his bed, and the list continued on and on, but nothing had shaken him to this extent.

'_I'm going to die!_'

Something in him snapped. He knew he had to get out and he had to get out _now._ His attention sharpened to a point Tsuna didn't even think was possible for him and an odd calmness washed over his body. Small hands gently traced around his surroundings to find some hint, some clue about how to get out. And - '_There!'_ - he felt it. Ridges on the tough fabric to his side.

'_A zipper!_' His racing mind supplied.

Tracing the ridges to a tiny opening, Tsuna did his best to open up the zip. Slowly but surely, he was making progress but…

A blast of cold wind burst into the enclosed area.

'_Why is it so cold?_'

Still, facing the cold and scouting his surroundings would be better than remaining in hiding until something worse happened to him. To be safe, Tsuna wrapped one of the shirts he found in his vicinity around his head to keep it warm. Something in his gut told him it would be a good idea.

And it was. As soon as he peaked out, cold air blasted his partially covered face. It was still dark, but he could see the faint outline of a suitcase – _that's_ what he was trapped in? – and some other crates and cargo. He saw no exit.

Great. He was either going to die of hypothermia or suffocation, Tsuna lamented before quickly retreating back in the suitcase.

'_Why me?_'

* * *

Iemitsu was doing his best to reassure Nana while trying to keep his panic down at the same time.

Tsuna was missing. _Tsuna_ was _missing_. His _eight-year-old_ son was missing and god knows else what could be happening to him now. He could be under torture right now. Or worse, dea-

'_No, I can't think about that! I have to focus!_'

Nana had already called the police and was about to make posters. There was nothing more that could be done in Japan except to wait. Nonetheless, he had reassured her that he would come back as soon as possible to help with the search.

'_Even if I have to miss the initiation ceremony._'

After a distressful hour long talk, he hung up the phone and sat in pensive silence in the luxurious private jet owned by the Vongola. But it was hard to enjoy the velvet seat and large leg room when all he could think about was Tsuna _Tsuna_ Tsuna. His precious oh-so-timid son. His son that shot him puzzled looks at nearly everything he said and tripped over flat surfaces.

_"Dad, what do you do for a living?" The child asked with large curious brown eyes, eyes that he had inherited from his mother's side._

_"I go around the world and control traffic in construction sites!" Iemitsu replied, waving a light stick that he had bought earlier for his fake disguise-job. Tsuna stared at the stick with puzzlement and slight disbelief. It definitely was not the typical job career choice._

_"Why?"_

_Iemitsu grinned and fed his son his rehearsed lines. "Well you see Tsuna, if I don't, who knows when a stray bulldozer will run into this house! They need people like me to help direct things to keep people like you safe!"_

'But I've failed at that, haven't I?'

He ran a rough hand through his hair. Had all his hard work in trying to separate his family and his _other_ family failed? What would he d-

The noise of an explosion startled Iemitsu out of his thoughts. The plane trembled and it was not long until the flight attendant rushed in with even more bad news.

"We're under attack!"

Iemitsu swore. His day had just fallen from average to bad to _deep shit_.

"What's our status?"

"The right engine of our plane has been torn off by a missile. Enemy forces are unidentified. We are currently over Russian territory but there are no landing bases at the moment, emergency landing may be risky."

"It may be our only choice, lemme get my weapon and get a parachute for me."

"Yes sir!"

The mafioso in Iemitsu emerged. The "Young Lion" efficiently snapped off the seatbelt and made his way to the back. Normally, it would be impossible to access the cargo from the passenger section, but this was an emergency and drastic times called for drastic measures. He inhaled deeply and he began sprinting as he approached within a few feet of the back. The perfect balance of momentum and strength was necessary. With absolute concentration on his face, Iemitsu pulled back his curled fist and then released all of its wrath on the back of the plane where he knew the cargo would be. A devastating dent was produced by the force of his fist, covered lightly in dying will flames.

"Heh, I'm losing my touch..."

He quickly delivered a few more punches to the steel wall, ignoring the pain to his fists with the help of the adrenaline coursing through his body. The wall eventually gave in and fell over. Excellent.

With haste, Iemitsu scanned for his suitcase in the dark and hurried to open it to retrieve his weapon. He would just have to leave his other gifts for the 9th behind; the old geezer could do without more wine anyways.

* * *

Tsuna was curled up in the suitcase, trying to soak in as much warmth as possible from the clothes around him. A part of his brain was panicking and telling him '_I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die_' yet another part was reassuring him with the odd prediction that '_someone will come, I need to stay calm and _survive."

Yet both of these voices quieted when a large tremor rumbled the suitcase he was in. And if that wasn't enough, a few minutes later, loud banging erupted from nearby. Was this it? His chance of escape? Who would find him? A robber? Tsuna heard the zip being pulled open. His mother? The police?

He sprang up from his nest of clothes as soon as the zip had been undone enough. A shocked figure was half-visible by the light coming from the cabin of the rest of the plane.

"Dad?"

"Tsuna?"

* * *

A/N: Oh wow, I haven't written fics in ages. But this plot bunny has attacked me for AGES so I'll try to write it all out now. I have several chapters planned out. Basically the premise of the story is that Tsuna discovers his Hyper Dying Will persona/hyper intuition at a much earlier age without the help of magical bullets. And stuff happens.

I have NOT read reborn in a while and I am really bad with keeping up with the chapters. I think I kinda stopped keeping track midway through the future arc although I do know the ending. So if there are any plot holes, I apologize I actually don't care enough to read catch up on the series.

Also, I am horrible at writing pairings. I can write friendship, close friendship, yearning, etc. but my writing, for some reason, never progresses into a relationship. Silly brain. There will probably be a Tsuna x someone pairing and this someone will probably not be any of the female characters because I don't like them much...sorry. (In "I don't like them," I don't mean I will bash them though. I just mean I can't write them in a relationship with Tsuna past small friendship and maybe initial minor crushing). Feel free to leave a review pimping a pairing but it's waaay too early on to decide on anything now. I'll just kinda let the story take shape I guess.

And I promise there will be minimal/no OCs. By minimal I mean like random characters that just play small roles like the flight attendant.


	2. Chapter 2

Midnight; At a cheap inn somewhere in southern Russia

If the situation wasn't so serious, Iemitsu would have cooed over the image of his adorable son clutching his shirt with tired, half-lidded eyes and a runny nose. They hadn't shared such closeness for a while, especially when Tsuna had reached the age where he flinched at nearly everything, including his father's loving arms.

But the image of his silly air-headed father probably would not be a comfort for Tsuna now, especially after they had just parachuted off a plane and escaped open fire. Right now, he needed to show Tsuna the firmness that had gotten him his highly-valued position in the mafia.

His calloused hands ruffled Tsuna's hair in a comforting gesture. "Don't worry Tsuna, I have a contact who'll pick us up and take us to a safe place to Italy. Then we'll try and get you back home to Japan."

Tsuna sneezed; he had been exposed to the cold far too long for an 8-year-old. His small body snuggled closer to his father in a search for warmth and Iemitsu pulled a thin linen blanket over the two of them.

"When...when are we going to get back home?" Tsuna timidly asked.

Iemitsu pursed his lips but soon overrode his pensive expression with a friendly reassuring smile. "Soon soon, don't worry about it. Daddy will make sure you're safe."

Tsuna shot Iemitsu a suspicious look and Iemitsu suspected that his son saw right through his feeble attempt to side step the question. But the boy didn't push the issue and instead decided to drift off to sleep - it had been an eventful day after all.

Iemitsu regretted that he had to lie to his son. They wouldn't be getting home any time soon, especially on such close surveillance from enemies. Only a select few in the Vongola knew of his family in Japan. It was a secret he planned to take to the grave.

* * *

It was six in the morning when Iemitsu slung a bundled up Tsuna over his shoulder and snuck out to meet his contact. The contact was only a minor member of a prominent mafiya group that had a loose alliance with the Vongola, so he was much more weary about what was to come than he let on to Tsuna.

"Your son?" The contact asked, slight curiosity coloring her voice. The mafia just didn't lug around kids randomly and the similarity in facial features was there, just barely.

"Nah, just an interesting runt I picked up." Iemitsu replied casually, stepping into the private helicopter.

Of course, the mafia also didn't bring their kids to work - that almost always guaranteed an early death - so the contact bought the answer and focused her attention on piloting.

* * *

Iemitsu had been dropped off ten miles from the CEDEF base. He didn't trust his allies enough to let them any closer and risk revealing the base. He wouldn't have even risked a ten mile radius if it weren't for the fact that Tsuna was quickly developing a fever and the base was about to be relocated closer to the main head quarters in a few months anyways.

A moan from the bundle over his shoulder had let Iemitsu know that Tsuna was NOT a happy camper.

'Hmm, what should I do?' He wondered to himself. He probably looked like a kidnapper already, and he couldn't afford to draw too many looks in the nearby town.

"D-dad...I...bathroom?"

Iemitsu remembered how much he had wished for a larger role in Tsuna's parenting during Tsuna's toddler years. Now he was thankful that he had never had to deal with babies and their tiny bladders as he looked around in a panic for the nearest building with bathroom facilities.

* * *

"You're LATE!" Lal shouted, drop kicking the large camping backpack that Iemitsu was carrying. "Do you know how much of a panic you put us in? We were about to send a search party!"

"Eek!" Tsuna, half asleep in the backpack, immediately leaned towards one side out of an instinctual urging from his mind. Luckily, his instincts had proven correct once again as he managed to avoid most of Lal's kick. And at the moment, Iemitsu was more concerned about the safety of his son - and his back - than Lal's shouting.

"Careful, careful!" He warned, letting the backpack down his shoulders carefully.

"...did your backpack just squeak?"

"Tsuna, are you alright?"

Brown hair emerged from the oversize bag. Surprisingly, Tsuna didn't seem injured at all. Iemitsu dismissed it as luck and happily lifted his son out of the bag. "Lal, meet my son, Tsuna. Tsuna, this is Lal, she's a friend of daddy's, but don't let mommy know! She might get jealous!"

Lal raised an eyebrow at the skinny squirming child in Iemitsu's hands. The child returned her gaze with a curious examining look of his own. The arcobaleno was one of the few that knew about Iemitsu's other family, and she was intelligent enough to realize that Iemitsu would never bring Tsuna over for casual business. "I see you've got a problem."

* * *

Tsuna decided that, although Lal was quite scary most of the time, she seemed nice because she made good soup. Or perhaps that was his hungry stomach talking after two days without a good meal.

The boy was content for now. There were no more gun shots, freezing cold weather, or uncomfortable back pain. He even dared to hope that he would be in Japan before the week was over. Perhaps that was what his father was whispering to with Lal in the room over, although he had a feeling that he was probably incorrect.

The two adults returned to Tsuna's new makeshift living quarters just as he finished his soup. Lal looked as serious as always and the pensive look on Iemitsu's face concerned Tsuna.

"Tsuna, Daddy needs to go to a very important meeting soon. Lal is going to look after you for the next few days, but as soon as I get back, we'll go back to Japan, okay?"

Lal observed as Iemitsu ruffled Tsuna's hair with the same affection he gave to all his work partners, although this gesture was slightly gentler than normal. There was no doubt that Iemitsu loved his son even though the man remained tight-lipped about the boy to almost everyone, most likely for the boy's protection.

Tsuna looked cautiously at Lal. "...Could I have more soup?"

* * *

Author's Note: So sadly, I lost a lot of my notes for this fic due to a computer crash/virus. This meant I had to do a whole heck of a lot of research again because I had this carefully constructed theoretical time line to this event with citations from cannon chapters (yes I am OCD at times lol). In the end I really didn't do as much research as I first did because I'm very busy with school, but hopefully this is close enough to cannon. KHR has plenty of plot holes anyways, why not add more? Lol

Anyways, school is still keeping me busy. I predict an update in maybe 2 months but my predictions have never been accurate.

Sorry this chapter is not very eventful. Consider it an interlude of sorts. Next chapter will be much more eventful, with the appearance of Gokudera because I've always had a soft spot for Gokudera :)


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR plzkthx. I barely even read it anymore :(

**Note:** If a piece of dialogue is underlined, that means it is in Italian. Otherwise assume it's in Japanese.

* * *

After Tsuna had finished his second helping of food, he just simply stared at Lal with a natural child-like curiosity. He was amazed that a baby could look so mature with weary eyes that spoke of years of experience. And those eyes felt SHARP. Lal's gaze intensified as she glared at Tsuna as she would a soldier in training.

"Hieeee!" Tsuna squeaked, looking back down at his empty bowl to escape Lal's gaze.

Lal was a trainer for the military. She was not a babysitter nor a mother. Tsuna had not mentally matured much from the tiny baby she first saw years ago and it was hard for Lal to be anyone else but her usual gruff self for the kid which probably wasn't helping the kid's nervousness at all. She was honestly at a loss about how to take care of the eight-year-old boy so she did the most reasonable thing that she could think of: she stuck the boy with Basil.

"Basil, get in my room," she ordered into her communicator device.

Sure Basil was only one year older, but at least the boy knew his way around the base and she hoped that Tsuna would calm down with a companion that was close to his age.

"I shall be there in five minutes," a voice replied shortly after. Lal gave a grunt of acknowledgment. Five minutes and this awkward meeting would be put to an end. The arcobaleno took this time to examine Tsuna closer. The boy was extremely thin with a bit of a feminine figure. She could tell that he had definitely taken after his mother more than his father in both physique and mind. But there he was, staring at her with curious brown eyes again despite his earlier fear. Maybe he did take after Iemitsu, just a bit.

Lal heard the door to the room open and she began to walk out. She stared at Tsuna one last time before leaving to inform Basil about his new charge. "Maybe there's hope for you yet, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

Meanwhile, outside, Basil stood with his back straightened and muscles tense. He wasn't quite sure what Lal wanted from him, but the last time Lal called him, she had, as per Iemitsu's request, put him through hellish conditioning not meant for kids his age. He really hoped that this wasn't the case.

"Basil," Lal greeted.

"Re-Reporting for duty ma'am," he replied, giving a brief salute. He knew the Vongola wasn't a military organization but many in the CEDEF knew that Lal appreciated the familiar gesture, even if she never openly admitted it.

"Iemitsu's kid is here and you're baby sitting."

"Wha..._What_?" Basil was absolutely confused. Iemitsu had never brought his child to work before, although he had mentioned having a son to Basil before.

"This is a secret right now. According to Iemitsu, his son accidentally got trapped in his luggage, probably because he never double checks after throwing all his stuff in there. Don't be as careless as your teacher while handling the kid."

Lal had already began walking when Basil finally realized his superior was really dropping the task of taking care of Iemitsu's kid to HIM. Basil knew that he was well-trained for his age but to be put in charge of a kid while he was barely old enough to be legally home by himself? Well, the mafia rarely followed laws, but most importantly, "w-wait! I don't know how to speak Japanese!"

The Arcobelano briefly turned around to glare at Basil for missing the obvious solution to his dilemma. She wasn't here to babysit TWO stupid brats. "Use the internet."

* * *

Basil stared nervously back and forth between a laptop and Tsuna who had redirected his staring from Lal to Basil. "Uh...Um...Hello...name is Basil," the boy greeted in broken Japanese that had an atrocious accent. Surprisingly, Tsuna understood.

"Tsuna," he replied in a soft tone.

"Huh?"

"My name. Tsuna," the younger boy reiterated. He seemed to understand that the other boy didn't really speak Japanese well and kept his own speech fairly simple.

"O-oh. Nice meet you Tsuna-dono," Basil replied with a relieved smile, happy that he could communicate on some minor level with the other boy. Basil had even added the respectful honorific and was quite proud of himself for that. The son of his boss and teacher deserved respect after all.

'_...Weird_,' Tsuna thought to himself, unfamiliar with being addressed as -dono, but the new boy seemed nice at least.

The two stared at each other for a little longer before Basil realized he had no clue how to continue on from there. Judging from the empty bowl, Tsuna had already been fed. What else was there to do in taking care of a kid?

'_Think Basil think! When I was younger, what did I do?'_

Sadly for the boy, all he could recall was training and conditioning. And reading on occasion, but all the books here were not in Tsuna's native language. The younger boy probably wouldn't appreciate practicing push ups either.

Basil was looking back and forth between his computer in another attempt at communication. "Hmm...uh...Tsuna-do...no?" However, fortunately for Basil, he did not even have to try as Tsuna had suddenly drifted to sleep in a fit of exhaustion. Well, considering the timezone differences and the experience of having been dragged thousands of miles away from home, Basil found Tsuna's tiredness quite reasonable.

Basil fetched a pillow and a blanket for the sleeping boy. "Good night," he said, gently patting Tsuna's head. Basil had never had a brother before. Well, he might have had one somewhere out in the world. He wouldn't know for sure because he didn't quite know his family well. Basil was just a lucky kid who had happened to garner Iemitsu's pity when the boy clung to Iemitsu's pants during a shoot-out at an orphanage. He was one of the few survivors and was lucky enough to be taken in by the CEDEF at Iemitsu's insistence.

To Basil, Iemitsu was like a father. But Basil didn't dare hope that Tsuna became his brother. The mafia was not a nice world and Basil wanted to see Tsuna retain his innocence for just a bit longer.

* * *

"Intruder alert, intruder alert, intruder alert, in-"

"I'll...I'll prove myself to everyone! Take this!"

"Tsuna!"

The eight-year-old boy had a horrible wake-up call in the form of a dynamite stick flying right at his face. Tsuna's eyes widened as he quickly noted that the fuse was almost out on the stick. The world seemed to slow down around him and he noticed that the trajectory of the dynamite was quite predictable. He could do this. With reflexes Tsuna didn't even know he had, he managed to catch the dynamite stick by its wick and put out the fuse.

Just as the young boy was about to let a sigh of relief, another dynamite exploded to his right and he was pushed back by the explosion. Smoke and heat filled the room - obviously a sign to get out, _now_.

Through the smoke, Tsuna managed to spot light from a distance and ran towards it. Thankfully, it was the entrance to the hallway. The attacker was out of sight, and all looked suspiciously safe. However, Basil was not outside either. Tsuna had a feeling that the two were still inside, probably fighting it out.

He was a bit worried for his new friend, but the worries were quite short when he spotted some black-suited men turning the corner into the hallway. '_They don't seem very friendly_,' Tsuna noted to himself when he saw that they were holding guns. It was a miracle that he wasn't hyperventilating right now. Instead, he felt quite calm. But that was probably for the better anyways.

With a clear and focused mind, he was more likely to survive.

Tsuna ran down the hallway and bounded into the first open door he spotted. And following his pattern of luck the last few days, Tsuna ended up in a holding area for prisoners. The power and calmness that he felt earlier disappaited and he was left with only exhaustion. It was like a lightswitch had turned off on Tsuna. The boy suddenly collapsed.

* * *

Poke. Poke. _Jab._

"Eep!" squeaked Tsuna as he rolled away from the source of pain and was jolted awake when his head hit reinforced steel. "Ow..."

"You're that boy from earlier..."

Tsuna reached up to rub his throbbing head gently, but noticed that he couldn't just move one hand alone. He was in handcuffs. Well that was odd. Giving up on the awkward motion, Tsuna settled with sneaking a peak at his attacker. The boy looked around his age although the white hair definitely seemed out of place on a boy. "W-Who are you?" Tsuna asked, temporarily forgetting that this was not Japan.

The boys eyes seemed to widen. "Japanese, huh?" The silver-haired boy noted as he switched languages. "It's none of your business. Who are YOU?"

"I...I'm Tsuna," he answered lamely.

"Pff, what a ridiculous name," Gokudera stated, not even bothering to look at the other boy anymore. He was putting all his attention on picking the lock of his handcuffs with a hairpin he had conveniently brought along.

"U-um, where are we?"

"In a prison you idiot, aren't these handcuffs and bars an obvious clue?" Gokudera responded, huffing in frustration at the stupid question.

"O-oh," Tsuna replied meekly, shrinking away from the other boy's fury. However, it seemed as if the other boy wasn't even paying attention to him anymore so Tsuna felt that it was safe to stare, and stare he did.

The other boy was in bad shape with clothing torn in several places and disheveled hair. The slight swelling around his cheeks and a large gash on the left arm especially earned an internal wince of sympathy. Tsuna wondered if picking the lock was painful for the other boy.

"Ha, got it!" Gokudera smiled triumphantly as the handcuffs fell off his hands. "Now to pick the other lock..."

The boy moved towards the lock on the cell and began to work his lock picking skills on that as well. Gokudera was so absorbed with his work. It required all his attention to ignore the pain on his arm and focus on feeling the shape of the lock. Tsuna thought it was quite fascinating: the look of pure determination on Gokudera's face. He wondered what drove the other boy to try so hard to escape. Of course, being a prisoner probably wasn't so good, but they were safe now. And his dad worked here and his dad was good (probably) so prisoners weren't treated bad (probably).

But then again, what did Tsuna know about his father? He barely saw the man nowadays.

Minutes passed and Gokudera had still not succeeded in opening the lock. Something else did open though: the door. Without really thinking, Tsuna grabbed Gokudera and pulled him away from the lock. He managed to grab the incriminating hair pin away as well.

"Hey! What was that fo-"

"Shhh!"

Tsuna put his hand on Gokudera's mouth and motioned with his head to the man that had emerged from the door. At that moment, the man, who had previously been surveying all the other inmates, turned his attention to the two boys.

"Hey, what are you doing with your handcuffs off?"

Tsuna took a deep breath, searching for that inner calm he felt earlier. "His wrists were hurting so I took them off with this," Tsuna handed the hairpin to the man as a peace offering and the man grudgingly took it. "We promise not to do it again, could you just get him a medic? Please?"

The man glared at Tsuna. Without any warning, he grabbed Tsuna's hand and twisted it roughly. The young boy let out a scream of pain because that was all he felt at the moment. His arm exploded in agony at being twisted into an unnatural position. "Don't try to escape again. Now you'll really need a medic."

The man did leave after that although he left no promises of a medic. Despite his arm still being in pain, Tsuna did feel relief that the man had left and that Gokudera remained unharmed.

"Why...Why did you do that for me idiot?"

Gokudera seemed to look at Tsuna with awe and admiration in his eyes. No one had stuck up for him like that before. But here was a random stranger who took a punishment meant for him.

"Well...you were already hurt. I didn't want you to be more hurt," Tsuna replied as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Idiot! Such an idiot!"

Tsuna gave a small nervous laugh. "So, what's your name?" He asked for the second time.

"Gokudera. Hayato Gokudera! To atone for my horrible behavior to you, I will follow you for life!"

"...Eeeh?" Tsuna was alarmed that the boy was now on his knees grabbing Tsuna's good hand and fixing a very serious gaze at Tsuna. The brunette had a feeling that Gokudera was not joking.

"Uh...You don't have to really..." Tsuna began, backing away a little. He was too young to have a follower!

"...You...you don't want me? I'm not good enough, am I?" Gokdera dropped Tsuna's hand and looked down at the ground with the look of a kicked puppy.

"No no! That's not what I meant at all Gokudera-kun!"

Gokudera, however, didn't seem to hear Tsuna. "I came here to try to get into the Giuliano famigliaby prooving myself in this raid but I've failed and gotten myself captured! Now not even a kid wants me! I'm such a fail-"

"No you're not!" Tsuna kneeled down and put his good hand on Gokudera's shoulder. He gave his sweetest smile to the depressed boy. "I-I just don't think I'm ready for a follower. But will you be my friend Gokudera-kun?"

This seemed to have sufficiently cheered the other boy as Gokudera jumped onto his feet with his good fist clenched in determination. "O-of course! I will be your best follower AND friend forever!"

'_Uh...not what I meant but if it makes him happy..._'

Just then, the door opened again and a familiar figure walked in. "Tsuna-dono?"

* * *

A/N:Yay new long chapter. Sorry if there are any small mistakes, this is unbeta-ed so please feel free to point out mistakes if you find any.

Darn, I still feel like I'm leaving some plot holes because I am still a bit lazy to do all my research again. Anyways just a few brief questions to any of my non lazy reviewers who are willing to look up this for me (this will probably speed up my next update):

1) When was Xanxus frozen by the Ninth?

2) What are the differences between the Japanese/American school system? I remember looking into this a while ago but...pff -memory loss-

What grade level would Tsuna be at 8? And what would he be at 14? Does the Japanese school system go up to grade 12? Because in my home country, it only went up to 10. I'm not sure if it's country thing or an asian thing.

Thanks to everyone who has kept up with reading this by the way. I really appreciate all your support and I will endeavor to update more this summer!

I was wondering: Would you guys like to see characters from the future arc/shimon arc in this fic? If so, I'll be looking for a beta or someone who can answer all my questions about the future arc/shimon arc. So kinda like a consultant? Lol. I may include characters from those arcs or other cannon elements. Like I read somewhere that *SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT* Tsuna's dad supposedly killed the Shimon family but it wasn't actually his dad. How long ago did this take place? I've just been reading the manga on and off so I probably did miss a lot of the plot and I honestly don't like the manga enough to read through the recent arcs.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR, I'm merely a lazy poor college student plzkthx

* * *

**Recap:**

_Just then, the door opened again and a familiar figure walked in. "Tsuna-dono?"_

* * *

Gokudera quickly shifted to a defensive posture and moved in front of Tsuna protectively. The silver haired boy scowled at the newcomer. He didn't trust any of the Vongola after what the last guard did to his new friend. Tsuna, on the other hand, smiled and waved his good arm to greet the guest.

"Basil!"

The brunette's actions confused Gokudera, but the familiarity in Tsuna's voice hinted to him that the newcomer was not a threat. "Do you know him?"

Tsuna nodded. "Basil is also my friend."

"Tch." Gokudera moved out of the way to allow Tsuna to approach Basil. He still kept a weary eye on the new boy though.

Basil took in their exchange with interest. Tsuna and the silver-haired boy seemed to act friendly to each other and the former intruder actually seemed respectful to Iemitsu's son. That was odd. More importantly though, the two were speaking in Japanese, and he was quite sure that during the attack, Gokudera had spoken Italian. Basil was smart enough to realize that while the internet was valuable, a translator was even more so. Basil locked eyes with the silver-haired boy, not intimidated at the least by his glare. He had faced much worse glares from Lal.

"Can you speak Italian?"

Gokudera raised an eyebrow mockingly. "Duh, we're in Italy."

Tsuna, like Basil, caught onto the fact that Gokudera could make an adept translator. Shyly, Tsuna tapped Gokudera on the shoulder and softly whispered a request to his ear. It was obvious to Basil that Gokudera was wrapped around Tsuna's finger. The look on the boy's face spoke of pure determination and eagerness to please like an obedient puppy.

When Tsuna finished, Gokudera turned his attention to Basil and cleared his throat. It was as if he had been commanded to deliver an important message and intended to do so _flawlessly_. "Tsuna wants you to know that he's fine except for his right arm. That bastard of a guard twisted it when..." Gokudera paused, a bit hesitant to let on that he was the true cause of Tsuna's injury. Tsuna never said that he had to tell exactly what had occurred moments prior. "...anyways who are you? And why is Tsuna here anyways? He can't even speak Italian and I know I saw him in here even before the invasion."

Basil's eyes narrowed. Information was precious in the mafia, and he wasn't quite so willing to give away information regarding Tsuna's identity to Gokudera quite yet. After all, the silver-haired boy had previously attacked the Vongola. "I should be asking you that question. I didn't know that the Giuliano recruited so young."

"Speak for yourself Vongola," Gokudera coldly replied. Basil wasn't the only one who had been raised with the mafia.

Meanwhile, Tsuna watched the exchange carefully. He couldn't understand the words, but he could feel the tension in the air and sense the hostility reflected in the facial expressions of his two friends. Gokudera had obviously asked more than Tsuna had requested and Basil did not seem to appreciate his prying. It was odd, seeing Basil's former calm blue eyes narrow into a cold steely gaze. He didn't like it.

"Basil! Gokudera-kun!"

Like a knife, Tsuna's words cut through the cold tension of the room and put a temporary halt to the hostilities. Both Basil and Gokudera realized now was not the time to argue. Now was the time to get Tsuna medical attention.

"I came here when I heard reports of two kids in the prison cells needing medical attention. Tsuna's my charge but he went missing after you attacked," Basil explained in an almost conciliatory manner as he opened the prison door for Tsuna. It was vague information, but Gokudera accepted it grudgingly.

"I'm not a medic, but I can take you to one. Follow me," the eldest ordered to Gokudera. While Basil typed in the pass code to open up the door to the hallway, Gokudera carefully linked hands with Tsuna's left hand.

"Let's get out of this dump, Tsuna," he said with a small smile.

* * *

"YOU?" Gokudera gawked at Shamal who was sitting backwards on a chair with a lazy expression planted on his face. Shamal didn't seem too surprised, but one tends to get good at hiding their surprise after spending decades with the mafia.

"Eh, the brat? What are you doing here?"

"Doctor Shamal, you can speak Japanese?"

Shamal, indifferent as ever, looked over to an equally surprised Basil. It seemed that the poor boy was finally figuring out just how many of his coworkers knew Japanese. Shamal smirked at Basil and gave him a thumbs up. "Japan has some beautiful ladies...and great porn."

Even without understanding Italian, Tsuna got a strong impression that Shamal was a shameless pervert. The smirk on his face exuded evidence of that fact.

"But anyways, why are you here? I don't treat brats."

"No one else is on duty. And," Basil glanced at Gokudera, briefly wondering if the information was worth Tsuna's continued pain. Well, his teacher would most definitely be mad if Tsuna didn't get immediate treatment. "He's Iemitsu's son."

"Oh?" Shamal said with interest. Iemitsu was one of the few people that Shamal respected. Once upon a time, the two had been allies on the battlefield, and Shamal had seen first-hand the sheer amount of willpower Iemitsu possessed. Not everyone could go an hour bleeding from almost every pore in the body from the worst case of viral hemmoragic fever Shamal had ever seen. Iemitsu was quite fortunate that Shamal was there. In the end, the illegal research facility on bioweapons was shut down and Shamal had gained a new respect for Iemitsu. A doctor who spent every day watching people wither away from life had to respect a man who had that much of a survival instinct after all. "Heh, I'll do it as a present to Iemitsu then. When's he coming back from the initiation anyways?"

Basil was a bit surprised when Shamal leaked the information about the initiation. The initiation ceremony was not public knowledge and Shamal was too good to just let it slip on accident. It was a sign that the doctor trusted the "brat" that was with Tsuna. Basil would accept that...for now. "He will be back by tomorrow."

"Ya hear that? Your dad's coming back tomorrow," Shamal informed Tsuna. The young boy's face was just about to break out in another smile before Shamal swiftly took a hold of Tsuna's twisted arm and jerked it back into its rightful position. Tsuna yelped and Gokudera immediately ran to his side. Unfortunately for Gokudera, Shamal was expecting him and with a not-so-gentle finger flick to the forehead, Gokudera was knocked backwards.

"Calm down, geez. Your arm was just dislocated."

Tsuna held back tears as Shamal fitted a splint for Tsuna and went on to disinfecting and wrapping Gokudera's wounds. No one commented on how he didn't have a reason for treating Gokudera. Gokudera was especially preoccupied with cursing at Shamal for the pain from the stinging disinfectant. With Gokudera and Shamal distracted, the duty obviously fell to Basil to point out that Tsuna had fainted.

* * *

Shamal exited the medical bay to meet with Basil outside. He had left Gokudera at his place next to Tsuna's bed and deemed the boy terribly whipped. Iemitsu's boy sure worked fast. If only Tsuna were a girl.

"Do you know what's wrong with him?" Basil asked with worry evident in his voice.

"Maybe. Has this happened often?"

Basil paused a moment to scan through his brief memories with Tsuna. "He fell asleep pretty quickly after I first met him. The guards reported to me that they had found Tsuna collapsed outside the cells yesterday and assumed he was a prisoner that had almost managed to escape. Since his arrival two days ago, he does seem exhausted. Perhaps it's jet lag."

Shamal scoffed. "Kids don't just collapse from jet lag. Especially not healthy energetic 8-year-olds."

The apprehension in Basil's face increased. It would break Iemitsu's heart if he found out something was wrong with his son. "Then...what's wrong?"

"...Basil, did you ever give Tsuna any of your dying will pills?"

The boy tilted his head in confusion. "No, I keep them carefully hidden. I would never let my guard down that much."

"Hmm, interesting. The boy seems to be constantly invoking the state of dying will by himself then. Or, more likely, he doesn't know how to stop it."

"W-What?"

Shamal lit a cigar. Tsuna was definitely a puzzling case. "It's nothing life-threatening though. Still..." It was troublesome nonetheless. Someone would have to explain to Iemitsu and Iemitsu may not be too pleased to hear that his son was going to be chronically tired for the next few years, even if it would benefit Tsuna in the long run. However, Basil was not Iemitsu. Basil was the dutiful student who would respectfully listen about Tsuna's condition. Thus if he stuck the information with Basil, he could trust the boy to deliver the news while he fled the region for a while. At least until the protective father calmed down. In the mafia, people shot the messengers and he'd rather not get shot...or stabbed with a pickaxe in Iemitsu's case.

* * *

"What's wrong with my son?" Iemitsu demanded, slamming his fist on the coffee table and causing a crack on it. It was fortunate that the Vongola had chosen to go on the bargain side of shopping for furniture after the Varia had visited their humble base. Basil winced and added the coffee table to the list of "casualties" (right below the nice porcelain vase that he had broken during his rush to Tsuna's hospital room) that had suffered the wrath of Sawada Iemitsu.

"P-please try to calm down," stuttered the nervous apprentice who was discreetly moving the table away from his mentor. "Doctor Shamal said that he's fine..."

"Then why hasn't he woken up yet?"

Iemitsu's booming voice had a hint of panic to it that Gokudera, still sitting next to Tsuna's bed, could appreciate. He had asked himself the same question for the last several hours after all.

"U-uh everyone? I'm awake."

All attention focused on Tsuna who slowly rose upright with half-lidded eyes weighted down by drowsiness.

"Tsuna!" The worried father was the first to rush to Tsuna and pick him up in his arms. Tsuna squirmed, not appreciating the accidental pressure that Iemitsu applied to his injured arm.

"D-Dad! I'm okay! I'm okay! Put me down...please?"

"He's injured you idiot father!" Gokudera supplied. An offended Iemitsu looked down to glare at Gokudera. He prided himself as a father and would stand no insult to his favorite title. Once again, Tsuna got a front row seat to a full-out staring match.

Tsuna squirmed a little to at least try to find a more comfortable position. "I'm still here you know..."

Once again, the little boy became the voice of reason and Iemitsu realized he really should put his son down. Tsuna was comfortably returned to his bed and Gokudera looked on with a smug expression on his face. A glass of water was offered to Tsuna by a concerned Basil shortly after and the injured boy took it thankfully.

"Basil, continue."

Although his rage, fueled by confusion and worry, had been doused earlier by Tsuna's awakening, Iemitsu still had a serious expression on his face. His voice was clipped and formal. Basil almost felt as if he was delivering a mission report.

"Y-yes. According to Doctor Shamal, Tsuna seems to have accidentally turned on his dying will state somehow. Most likely due to extreme stress in a life or death situation."

"...W-was that because I threw a dynamite at him?" asked a nervous Gokudera. He didn't quite like the idea of once again being the cause of Tsuna's problems. It was frustrating. His first days as a follower were spent just making Tsuna's life worse. That wasn't how it was supposed to go!

"No," Basil replied with absolute certainty in his voice. "I did not witness you throwing the dynamite, but if events occurred as you reported and Tsuna managed to put out the dynamite just as he woke up, that indicates that he had already awakened the dying will state prior to that time. Otherwise, the normal Tsuna would not even be able to register that a dynamite was flying towards him." 

"You are not responsible for Tsuna's state," added Basil for good measure. He knew what moping in regret felt like and he did not want the other boy to sink into despair. He was going to be Tsuna's follower after all.

* * *

_"Hey, one more thing," the unconventional doctor mentioned as he was about to leave the base. "That brat's not a bad kid. Take him into the family. Perhaps looking after someone will teach that idiot to value his own hide. Or at least keep him from doing something as idiotic as attacking the Vongola."_

_The door closed in front of a dumbfounded Basil. "B-but I can't decide that!"  
_

* * *

Basil always seemed to get stuck with the job no one wanted. While he couldn't give Gokudera acceptance into the Vongola - he was too low in the food chain for that - he could, at the very least, help the boy out to the best of his abilities. The relieved expression on Gokudera's face elicited a sense of satisfaction from Basil. But he was not finished yet.

"It is most likely that Tsuna evoked the stage on his way to the base. He was trapped in a suitcase after all."

"Trapped in a suitcase? Tsuna, how did you get trapped in a _suitcase_?"

A sheepish expression was plastered on Tsuna's face at the question. He didn't expect Gokudera to bring _that_ up. The silver-haired boy continued on his own rampage.

"And _you!_" An accusatory finger was pointed at Iemitsu. "How did you let your _son_ get trapped in a suitcase?"

Iemitsu mirrored Tsuna's expression, and as amusing as the family resemblance between the two was, it did not calm down Gokudera.

"U-uh...well...I got up early to play with a new ball that dad brought home as a present. It bounced into his room and I went in to get it but then I tripped over something and then...I woke up in a suitcase," Tsuna finished lamely. All the occupants of the room had an expression of awe and disbelief on their face. Basil wished more than ever that he could understand Japanese. The silence in the room did nothing to make Tsuna feel better about his story. "I-it's okay though! I'm fine now!"

Gokudera seemed to be the first to recover and continued his accusations towards Tsuna's father. "Why didn't you notice that your _son_ was in your freaking suitcase?"

Just as Iemitsu was about to make a retort, Basil caught everyone's attention by clearing his throat quite loudly. His confidence seemed to run away from him though when his mentor glared at him. "U-uh anyways, Tsuna will be chronically tired because the dying will state takes a lot of energy...especially at his age. He won't have control of it for at least a year or two. But it should get better eventually, he's young so he can adapt to the pressure. At least, that's what the doctor said. Like I said earlier, Tsuna will be-oh, he fell asleep again."

That certainly didn't help Iemitsu's mounting concerns.

* * *

Basil and Iemitsu left to continue their discussion in a more private room. Once away from public eyes - or Gokudera's eyes really - the man leaned his head against a wall and sighed heavily. Basil got the impression that the burdens his master dutifully carried on his back just grew larger.

"Did something happen in Italy?"

"There was a spy apparently. A shoot-out broke out during the ceremony and Enrico was killed. It was a mess." Iemitsu could not help but feel that the feud was an ominous portent of things to come. The tired father raised his head to stare at Basil with a whole new level of seriousness. "Does anyone know about Tsuna?"

Basil paused a moment to re-evaluate. "The prisoners heard Tsuna and Gokudera speak Japanese, but they know nothing."

A half chuckle came out of Iemitsu's parched lips. "So my son's playing with the inmates already, huh? Guess he does take after his father." One day, Iemitsu would pry from Basil exactly how Tsuna had ended up in a prison cell, but that was a story for another time. "Basil. Kill them."

"W...what?"

"The Giuliano were an ally of the Vongola. Betrayal is not accepted lightly in our world." And more importantly, they knew about his son. That was their most unacceptable crime.

"B-but...they could have important information! Shouldn't we interrogate them first?"

"It has been settled."

Iemitsu's voice seemed so absolute and cold that Basil almost shivered. This was a whole new side of his master. Basil suspected that more happened in Italy than Iemitsu let on. He pitied the Giuliano family.

"What's going to happen to Tsuna? Will he be returning to Japan?"

Iemitsu shook his head regretfully. "No, not now. We're all under close watch. Since Xanxus's coup, the other families have been prowling into our affairs for a sign of weakness. The Ninth is trying not to let on about his injuries from his fight, but the geezer's getting old. We'll have a succession crisis on our hands soon. My initiation as the new external adviser only helped in drawing attention to my lineage. A trip to Japan is too suspicious right now."

"Japan is safer than Italy though," Basil mentioned grimly. Iemitsu nodded in full agreement.

"I want to keep it that way...for my wife. And Tsuna, when things get sorted out here."

* * *

"Iemitsu," acknowledged Lal as the two crossed paths in the hallway. "Are you leaving?"

Iemitsu halted. The two mafia members stood with backs facing each other. Japanese was their dialect of choice, if only because barely anyone else in the base understood it. "It'll be too suspicious if I stay here for long. The Ninth has summoned for me...again. This new job is turning out to be more troublesome than I expected."

"And your son?"

"Hey, Lal-chan~"

Lal did not appreciate that new mischevious tone that broke out from Iemitsu's formerly serious aura.

"How would you like a new student?"

* * *

**A/N:** Yay fast new (long) chapter! Thanks for all your reviews last chapter and all the new information! I learned a lot about the Japanese schooling system. I'll go with consensus and assume Xanxus got frozen 8 years ago (so 2 years before the start of this fic). Initially I planned to update my Digimon fic first but I've been having some writer's block with it so I decided to update this first to show my appreciation for all the feedback/information.

Anyways I hope this chapter has answered all the questions I've been receiving in the review. I intended to answer the "how did Tsuna get stuck in a suitcase" question last chapter but apparently I wasn't really clear. If there is anything else that you are confused about, please feel free to drop the question in a review because things that make sense in my head may not make sense to you when you read it haha

I'm going to procrastinate introducing characters from Shimon/the Future Arc...because I can. I'm still contemplating if I should put them in or not...but even if I wanted to there's no room in my plot for them until later anyways.

_**New question:** I somehow remember that Squalo and Dino ... went to school together? And was Xanxus there too? Or they all met each other early on somewhere. I dunno if this was cannon or fannon. Is there really some kinda school that trains mafia? Or maybe it's just a regular school. idk. I have a feeling it's fannon but...KHR is so cracky I wouldn't put it past possibility. If not, how did they meet?_

Sorry if you find these questions annoying. I'll try not asking them every chapter, promise! But they do seriously help me get stuff done faster because when I research, I tend to get sidetracked and research 100 other things...

**Next time:** Stuff happens. And Tsuna will say more than 50 words :O


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own KHR plzkthx. The only thing I own are my cracky plot ideas.

"Normal Japanese speech (translated magically into english for your convenience"

"Italian"

'_Deep dark secret __thoughts_'

* * *

Tsuna enjoyed several days of rest after the incident - most of those days were spent sleeping. It became noticeable to him that he was sleeping longer than usual, but he couldn't help it - he was just so tired. Everyone had tried to explain it to him but frankly, it didn't make much sense. What the heck was a "hyper dying will" anyways? Something that drained his energy apparently and made him oh so tired. It wasn't just his condition that made him tired - it was his whole situation.

When he woke, the first thing he noticed was that his father was no longer there. Yet again, Iemitsu had left him to be someone else's burden, and Tsuna had a haunting feeling that he was not going to be back in his mother's arms anytime soon either. Surprisingly, he's turned out horribly accurate in his gut feelings lately and he wishes, every night, that this prediction wouldn't be so correct.

It is though, because in a week, his father hasn't returned. After two weeks, Lal begain to insist that he get his hide out of bed and start training. By "insist," he actually meant "hold him to gunpoint and give him a horrendously daunting training regimen written on a long parchment of paper." Basil insures him that this is normal for Lal and that his training regimen is rather light. Gokudera takes one look at the list and calls Lal crazy. Tsuna is more included to agree with his silver haired friend.

Still, he has no choice. His father had left him here for what he hopes are justifiable reasons and to survive, he has to adapt. That doesn't mean he has to look forward to doing doing it though.

* * *

"Your father's not coming back for a while," Lal breaks it to him at the very start of their first training session together. She didn't want the brat to have any delusions about his father returning anytime soon - it would hurt less in the long run to break to him now.

Surprisingly, Tsuna replies with a small "I know." Lal just grunts gruffly in reply, and then they plunge into training with Lal barking out orders and Tsuna scrambling to obey them. Throughout the training session from hell, Tsuna finds himself agreeing with Gokudera more and more. No sane person would shoot someone when they failed to complete a lap fast enough. No sane person would shoot a person who was fallen over, collapsed, and half asleep. Lal was a bit too trigger happy and Tsuna appreciated his newfound reflexes more and more. If being tired all the time from this "hyper dying will" granted him the ability to avoid Lal's bullets, he found that it was a worthy trade off.

Lal simply commented that no one would spare a sleeping person's life in the battlefield. Sadly, Tsuna understood the truth to this argument. He just couldn't appreciate it when it was his life in question.

After the first week of training, Tsuna had learned that Basil was correct. The training was light...compared to what came after it. He discovered Lal had been a bit distracted during those first few weeks - the ambush incident had meant a lot of paperwork and damage assessment for Lal who had been given authority over the base. During the second week, they had moved on to much more intense training that now, according to Lal, required Tsuna to be more than half awake half heartedly running laps.

While Tsuna wasn't quite old enough for Lal to approve of him handling weapons, which Tsuna found odd since Lal herself was a baby, Lal did train him in her other specialty - hand to hand combat. Basil initially was a welcomed new face to this section of the training...until Lal threatened to kick Basil's butt herself if he didn't begin to seriously attack Tsuna. An apologetic look from Basil implying something like "this is for your own good...and mine" was the only warning he got before he was sent flying across the room.

Tsuna found himself well acquainted with the floor.

His progress was slow at first. Basil assured him that it was normal - he was just a child after all and training took time. Time as well as a lot of bruises. Gokudera was outraged every time he came back from training, but even the silver haired boy understood Tsuna's situation. Tsuna was going to be living, even if temporarily, in the mafia world and if he wanted his idol - his friend - to survive, Tsuna would need to learn to fight.

And Gokudera strove to suffer twice as much as Tsuna - if Tsuna had to suffer, he would suffer with him. He wanted to be strong enough to be there for Tsuna when the shorter boy needed him. Gokudera wanted more than anything else to be a part of Tsuna's strength.

He carried out his own physical training regimen as well as put himself to work improving, fine tuning, and increasing his dynamites. Basil and Lal grudgingly approved, seeing the boy as Tsuna's newest babysitter. He had Shamal's seal of approval, as dubious as that was, and Tsuna's trust. That was enough for them.

* * *

And yet another month flew by with training occupying both boys' time. It wasn't uncommon though for Tsuna to drag Gokudera into exploring the base, no matter how tired and battered both of them were. Sometimes, even Basil would tag along. Tsuna, the youngest, firmly believed they needed to do something besides "training." They were kids after all. And secretly, Tsuna had always wanted to go on such adventures with friends - this was his first opportunity to do so, even if it was in a mafia base. This was the first time he had friends and that made his time in the base, his homesickness, and Lal's ruthless training slightly more tolerable.

Gokudera began to enjoy the adventures almost as much as Tsuna. There were information he still wanted to gather and suspicions that he wanted confirmed. Shamal - that bastard - had left before he could interrogate the lecherousness man. Everyone was still quite tight lipped about Tsuna's position in the family. '_Sawada Iemitsu, a well known man among the ranks of the Vongola. That itself makes Tsuna an important target, but..._' Gokudera couldn't help but suspect there was more to the story. Tsuna was equally clueless and Gokudera did not have the heart to even gently probe the other boy for answers.

Lal and Basil were open targets though. So it was natural that he planted a simple suggestion to Tsuna, "Why don't we explore Lal's room?"

Almost immediately, Tsuna flinched backwards from Gokudera's suggestion. "E-eh? If she finds out, she'll kill us!"

Tsuna's response wasn't too far from the truth, but that didn't deter a curious Gokudera who was already halfway across the hall. "G-Gokudera-kun! Wait up!" Just as Gokudera suspected, Tsuna did nothing to stop him besides some feeble protests and followed him nonetheless. It pleased him to some extent, knowing that his bos - no, friend, he corrected himself - would have his back. He was no longer alone in the world and that made a world of a difference. With Tsuna by his side, Gokudera felt like he could survive anything, even a potentially angry Lal Mirch.

The two found the room to be empty and tentatively stepped inside. It was a simple room with barely any decorations. There was a simple neatly made bed, chairs, a desk full of papers, and a single photo of a woman who looked like an older version of the baby. Next to her was a smiling man with vibrant yellow hair. "Huh, are these her parents?" Tsuna asked to no one in particular as he stared at the photo. "She looks a lot like this woman."

"Maybe," Gokudera commented absentmindedly as he quickly scanned the papers on the desk. Tsuna noticed Gokudera's interested and groaned to himself.

"Lal's definitely going to kill us," he moaned.

Ignoring Tsuna, just this once, Gokudera concentrated on scanning the contents of the desk. They were mostly repair bills, half written reports, and other uninteresting documents. Two did stick out in particular though - one inviting Lal to attend a private funeral and another much shorter letter from Iemitsu that had a grand total of five words plus his signature: "I sent Reborn to help."

'_Reborn? The hitman Reborn?_'

The dynamite specialist did not have much time to think about it because Tsuna, without warning, pulled him away into a closet with a hand pressed to his mouth. He was smart enough not to protest - Tsuna had uncanny instincts which proved correct once again as seconds later, Lal entered the room with another baby.

"They've begun to suspect," said the unfamiliar voice in a very serious tone. "Matsumo's name itself has always caused a bit of curiosity. It isn't much of an Italian name."

"Matsumo's the second one within this year to have died off. It's suspicious." Lal's curt but feminine voice was easy for them to recognize.

"This is the mafia, Lal. Everything is suspicious," the other voice said with a knowing tone. "That's why he sent me here - for insurance. I owed him a favor."

"Everyone seems to owe him one," Lal replied wearily. The couple seemed to have stopped walking and continued their discussion near Lal's desk.

"He kept himself busy before he settled down," the man stated simply, not giving it too much thought. Reborn already deeply respected Sawada Iemitsu and Lal herself needed no explanation on how that man liked to single-handedly defy logic. "How's his son?"

Tsuna's heartbeat raced and his mind whirled, trying to process all the new information. This new person had apparently come on behalf of his father and had something to do with him. Perhaps another tutor? '_Oh god, I hope he's not as bad as Lal...no one can be worse than Lal...right?_' And Lal herself, he felt, was about to chew him out on his own progress.

"He's...not his father," Lal tentatively started, choosing her words carefully. "His condition makes it troublesome to train him sometimes, but he's improving. He still won't last more than ten minutes in a real shoot out."

'_Gee, that's assuring..._' Tsuna thought to himself. At least it was better than her original estimate of five seconds though.

"You've been coddling him."

Tsuna almost choked. '_THAT WAS CODDLING?_' He thought, absolutely astonished. Lal's training had been more painful than anything else he had gone through. Lal herself gave a "hmp" to Reborn, offended that he was questioning her methods. Before Lal could say anything though, Reborn took out a gun, aimed it at the closet, and fired. Tsuna squeaked, immediately throwing his body out of the way at the sound of a gunshot. Luckily, it missed both of them.

"Heh. At least you taught him that much."

"Reborn, try not to kill my student."

Ignoring Lal, Reborn opened the closet and watched the two boys fall out. "Ciaossu. I'm Reborn, I'll be your substitute teacher for the next month."

Tsuna felt that he had a very good reason for fainting right then and there.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gokudera remained as conscious and observant as ever. Wanting his questions answered, he wasted no time cutting to the chase. "Matsumo was the heir to the Vongola. He's dead?"

Gokudera found himself face to face with Lal's gun. "You have balls kid, sneaking into my room and still asking me questions without begging for forgiveness. I could kill you right now for hearing as much as you did."

Yet despite this threat from Lal, Gokudera stared on with a determined gaze. Reborn finally interfered. "Hayato Gokudera, I've heard about you."

"Eh, reallY?" Despite his best efforts to surpress it, a happy surge went through Gokudera. Someone as famous as Reborn had heard of a nobody like him!

"Iemitsu told me you were Tsunayoshi's bitch."

Gokudera almost fell to the ground in disbelief at the crassness of the statement.

"But tell me Gokudera, are you determined to follow Tsuna? No matter what?"

"Yes!" The reply came from Gokudera immediately without an ounce of hesitation. This seemed to please Reborn.

"Remember then, if you ever go against your word, the mafia does not take kindly to betrayal." A smile graced the baby's face as he signaled for Lal to put down her gun. "To answer your question, yes Matsumo died - he was found in a river. Someone had drowned him. Not long ago, another heir was shot in a feud. The list of potential candidates for the position of heir to the Vongola are dwindling. Next on the list is Frederico and behind him...is Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Tsuna is going to be the 10th?"

Lal cut in here, "Iemitsu also happens to be in line, but has forfeited his position to become the external adviser of the Vongola. He is doing his best to prevent this situation, but as it looks now, Tsuna must be ready."

On one hand, Gokudera thought it would be absolutely wonderful to be the right hand of the tenth Vongola boss. On the other hand, he knew how dangerous that position was and he knew his current strength was nowhere near enough to protect his friend. He contemplated all this information with a solemn face until Lal dismissed him.

"Take him back to his room, and remember. Don't speak of this to anyone."

"O-of course!"

Gokudera began to carry Tsuna out of the room, but did not get out without hearing a sharp crack and noticing a bullet embedded to the wall right next to him. "And brat," Lal fixed him with a glare, "don't do a stupid stunt like sneaking into my room again. You have five seconds to start running."

It only took Gokudera one.

* * *

**A/N: **Unbeta-ed as usual. Feel free to point out any mistakes you find, I will appreciate it a lot! I'm always working to improve my writing.

Sorry for the long period without an update. I had put up an alert on my profile mentioning that I would be scarce due to some important issues on gaia online. Now that that is mostly resolved, I can focus some attention back on this. I just recently reread it and got inspired to write more. Everyone's reviews are very encouraging and I'm learning a lot, so thank you all. You guys make me feel horrible about my infrequent updates but I WILL get this to an end. Hopefully. That's several several chapters away though haha (Oh god what the heck did I just dedicate myself to).

We're at chapter 5 which is still amazing because I don't think I've ever written this much for a fic before. I am giddy and excited, as pathetic as that is haha. Mukuro will be coming in two or three chapters, depending on how I want to pace it. Sad to say, we probably won't see Hibari or Yamamoto in a while but we'll get there eventuallyyyyy. I always have a hard time with pacing but I'm trying. Feedback is loved!


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR

'_thoughts__'_

_"_speaking (Japanese)"

"speaking (Italian)"

_dreaming/flashback/not reality_

* * *

_"Ciaossu,"__ the baby called out, casually walking into the room. Before Tsuna could say anything, his hands automatically raised to his defense as Reborn held him at gunpoint. "Let's see how good you are at dodging."_

Tsuna instinctively rolled over in his bed to dodge the bullet he imagined so vividly in his dream and promptly fell out of his bed.

"Gah!"

"Tsuna! Are you alright?"

Gokudera was the first to rush into the room, quickly followed by Basil and that baby from before. Lal was absent. She had left the base a day ago after she had introduced him to Reborn. Basil gave a vague explanation about delivering reports to the ninth boss.

"I'm not injured," Tsuna assured, picking himself off the ground with Gokudera's help.

"Then that means we can start training."

The gleam in Reborn's eye was enough to unnerve everyone in the room. Basil and Gokudera had heard _legends_ about Reborn's insane training and Tsuna didn't even need to sense Basil and Gokudera's anxiety to know that he was in for a whole lot more pain. He exchanged a glance with Gokudera.

'_He can't be worse than Lal, right?_' Brown doe-like eyes asked to Gokudera. Gokudera just patted Tsuna on the back and Basil gently guided the group to the training room. Every few minutes, he threw pitying glances at Tsuna. The younger boy knew in his gut that he was doomed

* * *

"Basil, you may leave."

"As you wish," obeyed Basil who promptly left the room after throwing one last glance at Tsuna. _'Best wishes Tsuna-dono. You'll be strong enough to handle this. You are his son after all._'

'_Why do I have this feeling that I'm going to die by the end of the day?_' Tsuna thought to himself.

"Oh, you aren't going to die," stated the baby, a smirk evident on his face. Tsuna was a bit startled - was he that open to read?

Reborn tilted up his hat, once again showing Tsuna his eyes that glinted with pure mischief. "Yes, the fear is just evident on your face. But as I said, you won't die. He will." The mafioso tilted his head at Gokudera. At Reborn's cue, Leon jumped from Reborn's hat and stretched out into a more gooey form. Both boys were so surprised by the change that they didn't do anything as Leon reformed into a bird cage around Gokudera.

"W-what's going on?" Gokudera asked, shaking the cage a little to test the bars. They held firm.

"A training game." Reborn stated, taking out a gun and reloading it. He then pointed the gun at Tsuna who flinched but held still. "You have to disarm me. For every ten minutes that you have failed to disarm me," the gun's target changed to Gokudera who managed to narrowly dodge the bullet Reborn fired at him, "your friend will get shot. And I promise you my aim won't be as bad. I'm the world's greatest hitman, I _never_ miss when I want to hit."

Tsuna was dumbstruck by how _stupid_ this situation was. Reborn was going to shoot at his friend for a _game_? He now understood more than ever why his father never mentioned this aspect of his life. All of his father's associates were nuts.

"_Why?_" The boy asked wearily. He was clinging to his last hopes that there was a greater rational explanation over this. Or that reborn was just pulling a joke - no matter how twisted it seemed.

"Lal has trained you in defense, but you lack the will to _attack_. You can't hide from your opponents forever. An attacker won't stop attacking when you start running, he'll stop when you disarm him. By the way, it's been a minute."

Tsuna had to admit - the explanation made sense. Still, he couldn't help but exclaim, "That doesn't justify _shooting at my friend_!"

"It's fine Tsuna," Gokudera disrupted, devotion once again shining in his eyes - Tsuna hated that look because he knew it meant Gokudera would do something crazy again. "This will make you stronger, right?"

"Your life is more precious to me than that!" Tsuna yelled, frustrated that Gokudera could not comprehend that no strength was worth losing the life of one of his first friends. Gokudera's eyes widened at the exclamation - it had filled him with a sort of warmth and self worth. But before he could reply, another gunshot disrupted their conversation and Tsuna was lucky enough that his reflexes had thrown him away from the shot before it connected with his arm.

"Fine, I'll be fair. I'll shoot _both_ of you."

Tsuna began to silently recite a string of curses that he hadn't even realized he picked up. '_How am I supposed to get close to disarm him under open fire?_' Afterall, Tsuna was more of a close-range fighter. Every time he got close, Reborn sent a shot at him that made him back off.

'_I'm screwed and utterly doomed. Shit!_' He didn't even have time to worry about what his mother and father would say about his new cursing habits. He was too focused on dodging bullets.

"Five minutes left. Is running all you can do Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

Gritting his teeth, Tsuna glared down at Reborn and escaped yet another bullet. '_Does he ever run out of bullets?_' Tsuna thought to himself sourly. Of course, Reborn had a shape shifting lizard, a gun with a limitless supply of ammo was not against all possibilities.

More importantly though, Tsuna was getting _tired_. Although, thanks to Lal's training, he did have much more energy than months before, Reborn's workout was quickly tiring him out. He needed to end this quickly. Before ten minutes was up. Before he collapsed. Before Gokudera got _shot_. But to approach, he needed a distraction.

A plan began to formulate in his mind, but he wasn't quite sure if it would work.

Tsuna discreetly unzipped his jacket from in between Reborn's shots. Reborn noticed it, but gave no indication. '_The boy's up to something._' The baby thought with amusement. Perhaps Tsuna would make his move soon.

The boy seemed to approach Reborn again, but feinted away before the shot he _knew_ was coming towards his forward foot and instead headed towards Gokudera's cage.

"Gokudera, what are you doing just _standing there_?" The boy called out, fixing his friend with a quick glare before moving to avoid more bullets. In that short time, Gokudera received Tsuna's unsaid message - '_I trust you, you can do more than that._'

"Cover me." It wasn't a question nor a request, it was a command.

"Got it boss!"

"Two minutes!" Reborn called out. The amused grin on his face grew even wider. Tsuna had done something very promising - he had reached out to his subordinates after realizing that there was no way an unarmed young boy could take out an armed hitman...even if his appearance was that of a baby at the moment. That was an action worthy of approval. Perhaps Tsuna did have potential to be a mafia boss after all. If he managed to succeed that is.

"Take this!" Gokudera yelled, throwing an impressive barrage of dynamites at Reborn. They were really coming at him as if too kill. '_It's finally getting exciting,_' Reborn thought as he began to shoot at the bombs. His attention was averted for Tsuna for a split second, but he could easily sense the presence coming from behind him and quickly turned around to send another shot at...a jacket? '_A decoy,_' Reborn noted quickly with approval. The real Tsuna then came from his side and grabbed his gun. If he were in his full adult form, he wouldn't have lost his grip on the gun. Sadly though, his baby form meant a much weaker grip that allowed Tsuna to escape with the gun. The incoming dynamites forced both to quickly part ways before an explosion detonated in the center of the training room.

"TSUNA!" Gokudera cried out in alarm. He wasn't quite sure what happened, but he did saw Tsuna go at Reborn - right at the targeted trajectory of his dynamites. Then the smoke and heat from the explosion forced Gokudera to look away and the smoke made the results hazy at best. '_Idiot! Aren't you the one who told me my life is precious? Don't you know YOUR life is precious to me too?_'

"Don't worry, he's fine."

It was Reborn's voice. Relief flooded Gokudera as the smoke cleared to reveal a battered but alive Tsuna, sleeping at a corner of the room with a gun cradled in his hands.

'_Not bad Sawada Tsunayoshi, not bad at all._'

* * *

Tsuna awoke the next day to a kick in the face. He was too tired to dodge it, but that didn't stop him from shrieking a loud "hiieeeeee!"

Reborn quickly backed off, wincing at the sound. "Awake now, dame-Tsuna?"

"What was that for?"

"You have to be aware of your surroundings." Reborn replied nonchalantly as he began to walk out of the room.

"IN MY SLEEP?"

Reborn ignored the comment. Tsuna should know by now that a mafioso needed to be prepared anywhere at anytime. "Meet me in the training room. You're not finished yet."

A loud groan came out of the room Reborn just left. Leon, nestled on Reborn's hat as usual, snickered. Tsuna had both the fortune and misfortune of earning Reborn's interest and mentorship. It wasn't an easy thing to earn...nor was it an easy task to survive through. Unknown to Reborn, Leon shed his tail for the first time in a while.

* * *

"I never thought I'd say this, but I kinda miss Lal. She at least didn't try to kill me...as much at least," Tsuna admitted to Basil who was currently taking care of Tsuna's new wounds. Basil gave a small laugh - he knew the general gist of what Tsuna was saying thanks to the constant exposure to the new language and his own studies.

"It's rare for Reborn to take a student - you should consider it an honor Tsuna."

Gokudera, who had been on an adjacent bed in the medical bay, quickly translated for Tsuna. "You're amazing though Tsuna!" He added with admiration in his eyes. Reborn had constantly thrown deadly scenarios at Tsuna - and the boy had miraculously survived them all through his incredible instincts, reflexes, and a whole lot of luck.

Tsuna eyed Gokudera wearily. The latest incident had involved fire. A lot of fire. And explosions. Perhaps that was why Gokudera had begun to warm up to Reborn's training - he got to help now. Tsuna got a nagging suspicion that his new friend may perhaps be a bit of a pyromaniac.

"I just can't wait for Lal to be back. It's only another week, right?" he asked with a sigh.

"Five days actually," corrected Gokudera.

Just then, the door to the ward opened. "Glad you missed me, brats." Tsuna and Gokudera both stiffed at the sight of Lal entering the ward.

"Lal! You're injured!" Basil exclaimed, quickly rushing over to his superior with his medical kit. Lal just grunted and let Basil fuss over her. The wounds weren't minor - just a few scrapes. She was an arcobaleno - a failed one, but a candidate nonetheless - and it would take a lot to land a more fatal wound on her even in her baby form.

"What happened?" Tsuna asked curiously, assessing his teacher. It was rare - very rare - for her to get hurt.

Lal pulled up her visor and locked eyes with Tsuna. "Do you really want to know Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

Her voice was dead serious and Tsuna had a feeling that no- he really didn't want to know. But Lal was...he wasn't quite sure actually. His mentor? His friend? She was someone who had looked over him, even if it was done so grudgingly. He couldn't help but be concerned. He gave a nervous nod.

Lal could see Tsuna's concern. His eyes were as innocent as ever. She found she didn't have the heart to tell him the full truth ('_You've been coddling him,_' Reborn's voice mentally accused). He didn't _really_ need to know about how she had went in with an attack force, including his father, to slaughter out the rival family that had attacked the base earlier. It had not been a clean job. How could she tell a kid that his father was a murderer? Of course, he would probably make the discovery eventually if he stayed in the mafia long enough. But he wasn't the heir - not when Federico was still alive at least.

"I took a team to attack an enemy base," she summarized. Half-truths were an art form in the mafia. She threw out a bone to keep Tsuna off the real trail. "You're leaving to go home in a month brat."

Tsuna could sense that there was something more to Lal's first sentence, but he didn't quite care as soon as he heard the second. He gaped in disbelief. "Really?"

"Your father gave the green light a little while ago and arrangements have been made. However, he's also requested one other thing." Lal punched a few buttons on her communication device and another lady entered the room. She was a bit familiar to the group - she was a regular at the base, but Tsuna had never bothered to converse with her. The lady was carrying a pile of papers and books.

"You have a bit of schoolwork to catch up to."

Tsuna groaned once again.

* * *

Reborn was walking through the hallways, about to leave the base. His duty was over after all. Hopefully Tsuna had learned something during their weeks together.

Lal stood in the hallway with her back to the wall. "I heard from Basil. So you really decided to train him seriously?"

Reborn was not one to mentor much. She could count the number of his surviving students on one hand. Lal had actually only expected Reborn to guard the base, and perhaps keep Tsuna in shape. She had returned to find that Tsuna actually had the guts to punch her during their first training session since her return.

"He was an interesting kid," Reborn replied before he walked out.

* * *

Reborn had left the base without warning. On one hand, Tsuna was greatly relieved. Reborn's training was just hellish. On another hand...he actually ended up appreciating Reborn's lessons now that he wasn't fearing for his life. He had managed to somehow impress Lal and greatly reduce the amount of insults she threw at his way. She still hit him quite hard though.

Nonetheless, Reborn's departure left a whole new set of problems - the foremost of which was academic studying. Tsuna had found that he had completely forgotten his previous knowledge in academics and stared at his textbooks dumbly which usually earned him yet another kick from Lal.

_("Hey! Are you studying or meditating brat?")_

He had been hopeful that Gokudera could help with his studies, but then he promptly discovered that Gokudera was horrible at explaining.

_("You just do this and that and then you get the answer!"_

_"Uhh...Gokudera-kun, what is "this" and "that?")_

And Basil just couldn't read Japanese. Tsuna sighed for what was probably the thousandth time since he had arrived at the base. Desperate to get away from his studies, he wandered back to his bed and threw himself on it. He was surprised his tiredness didn't creep on him nearly as often as usual. Reborn's bullets had probably chased it out of him. One more excuse he couldn't use to escape his studies.

He rolled over and for the first time noticed a pair of gloves with the number 27 on them. Tsuna examined them curiously. Were they his? "Huh, wonder where these came from."

* * *

**A/N: **I decided to use the nickname Dame-Tsuna. I think it's mostly from reading other fanfics or stuff that I remember it. I believe in Japanese, it means "no good Tsuna," but I also like to see it as a play on words because "dame" is a title associated with females. So it seems that reborn is kinda insulting Tsuna and calling him girly at the same time.

So anyways...look! It didn't take me more than four months to update this time ahaha. Still unbeta-ed. More unbeta-ed then ever, so please feel free to point out any mistakes you find so I can fix them. Also I'd love to get feedback about how you liked the training scene - I've always been a bit iffy about writing anything involved with action.

Amusing fact: Last time I checked the number of hits, it was 6,666. Why this number amuses me beyond belief I have no clue. But I really appreciate everyone's support!

Once again, thanks for reading. I went ahead and wrote out the next chapter as well, and I'll upload that the on Valentine's Day as I am trying to pace myself. Then update schedules will be back to my horribly irregular writing schedule thanks to school and stuff. However, if this fic gets over 100 reviews before then, I'll upload it early as a celebratory thing I guess since I have nothing else to offer.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: **I don't own KHR plzkthx

"underline" = italian speaking

'_italics_' = thoughts

"normal" = japanese speaking

* * *

"Tsuna, we're about to leave." Within his haze of drowziness, Tsuna could vaguely hear Gokudera's voice.

"Lal's coming with with a gun. A loaded gun," Basil added. Gokudera winced at that statement. In his head, he could already hear the sharp crack of a gun going off and a bullet lodging itself way too close for comfort.

"Tsuna, you should get up _now_."

Sensing the new urgency in Gokudera's voice, the brunette willed himself to get out of bed. A quick glance at his clock told him that it was the ungodly hour of four A.M. He couldn't help but mumble a string of incoherent complaints as he took Basil's outstretched hand. Gokudera took his other free hand and together, his two companions dragged him out into the brightly lit hallway.

The weight of drowsiness kept his eyelids in a half closed state and tempted his consciousness to have lapses in awareness. Before he knew it, he had already been loaded into a car with his head slumped against Gokudera's arm. The fabric-covered appendage really didn't make as much of a good makeshift pillow considering the constant bumps the car seemed to hit.

"Hey, kid, don't fall asleep, we're almost there." Lal called out. There was a hint of warning in her voice that promised _consequences_, but Gokudera had already pulled Tsuna into a more comfortable position with Tsuna's head on the older boy's lap. A hesitant hand stroked his hair, bringing a smile to the burnette's lips. Resisting the call of sleep seemed worth the risks, because the arm over his shoulder and the feeling of security brought by his new makeshift family - even though he _was_ in a car operated by Lal, and that should have brought up so many warning signs by itself - felt so nice. So nostalgic.

And then Lal slammed the brakes and the car door opened, unleashing a blast of cold air. Tsuna shivered, bringing the warm mittens that covered his arms to rub against his shoulders.

"Out, now."

Lal's voice wasn't in her full out commanding tone, but there was still the underlying authority that he always associated with her voice. He brought himself upright and blinked a few times in an attempt to fully wake up. It was only after Basil began to pull him out of the car that he noticed that Basil was wearing a much more casual outfit than he wore at the base. The suit was replaced for a sweater over a plain blue t-shirt with slightly worn out jeans. Gokudera even put on a hat to hide away some of his attention-drawing hair color. They were dressed to blend in.

And then it hit him. They were at the airport.

He was going back home.

* * *

Check-in went smoothly. No one questioned the three boys, especially with their escort - a bulky man who introduced him as Turmeric - helping them part their way through the crowd with a professional-level of confidence.

"Excited, Tsuna?" Gokudera asked, placing a hand on the younger man's shoulder. The plane was due to arrive in less than an hour and the two were comfortably resting in the seats that lined their flight terminal.

"Mm," Tsuna nodded in agreement. He looked straight at Gokudera and shot him an honest smile. "Thanks for coming with me Gokudera."

The other boy seemed to grow a bit more red, flustered by the attention. "I-It's no problem. There's nothing to do here anyways and...and...you're my friend after all."

The word "friend" brought an even larger smile to Tsuna's face. Gokudera was truly his first friend, someone he felt he had a connection with - because who wouldn't feel at least a bit connected after suffering through ridiculous training sessions together? - and it made the whole wayward trip away from home worth it. He would even dare to say he wouldn't have wanted events to work out any other way. And it wasn't so bad to be away from his mother, not when he had a different sort of family to tide him through. "Yeah, friends."

Basil watched the two from afar, already having said his farewells a while ago. Now he was on a full-time monitor duty. They had done their best to keep Tsuna under the radar so far, now it was time to see how successful their efforts were.

* * *

"Target spotted."

"Understood, proceed with caution to procure the specimen."

* * *

A bad feeling settled in Tsuna's stomach while he and Gokudera stood in comfortable silence. He was being _watched_. He could feel the eyes on him, but he couldn't locate them - not in the thick crowd of people in one of Italy's most populated airports. Even if it was early in the morning, today seemed to be particularly packed. He shifted closer to Gokudera.

The silver-haired boy easily noticed his companion's discomfort. "Something wrong?"

"I think...well...It's nothing. Just nervous."

Gokudera gave him a disbelieving look, but they left it at that.

* * *

"Basil, I've caught suspicious activity near terminal twelve."

"What kind?"

"A small time family, but they might be here for other business."

"Keep an eye on them."

"Wait, they're unloading a device. It's...emitting smoke? I'm making contact."

Already alarmed, Basil rushed to Tsuna and Gokudera. This reeked of foul play to come. Tsuna was the first to notice him coming, surprise evident in his eyes - they had thought that he had left already.

"Tsuna, we're leaving." He announced solemnly. Tsuna furrowed his brows as his face flashed from confusion to betrayal.

Gokudera was the one who was the first to break into anger though - he had always been the more hot-headed of the two. "What? He was looking forward to this all month! How can you just call this off!"

A shot rang out in the background, and screams began to erupt. Gokudera's arm grabbed Tsuna's left hand, and Basil quickly took the other. "I trust you don't need more explanation," Basil grimly replied as he quickly pulled Tsuna behind a pillar. Gokudera quietly cursed under his breath as the smoke began to reach their area of the airport.

"I'm going to _punch_ whoever's behind this," Gokudera swore. More gunshots rang out.

"Safety first. Don't breathe more than you have to. Someone else is handling it."

The three were running quietly as possible with Basil leading the way, presumably towards an exit. Adrenaline rushed through their veins, and all three were visibly nervous. It was hard to navigate under all the smoke which obscured their vision - but thankfully, it was a two-way factor. It hid their enemies from them, but it also hid them from their enemies.

Tsuna briefly imagined hearing Gokudera's rapid heart beat and his own blood rushing through his ears. The light pattering of their footsteps sounded so loud to his hypersensitive awareness, and he wondered if the enemies would hear it too. He tried to step softer, to move faster. The enemy was coming closer - he could feel it.

"We're almost at the exit." Basil had released a short breath - a sign of hope and relief, Tsuna noted. But he frowned, this was easy. Too easy. Like one of Reborn's lessons that would end up exploding in his face in the end.

The radio hidden under Basil's sweater flared to life. "Basil! They're using sleeping gas! Are you out yet?"

Then, everything happened all at once. The one sound was all the enemy needed to track them - a gunshot rang out. A cry - Gokudera's. Tsuna immediately caught his friend who clutched a bleeding leg. Another shot rang out, and Tsuna's body reacted out of instinct to pull the two down. The bullet whizzed right over them.

They needed to move, now. Using all the strength he built up in the last few months, Tsuna dragged Gokudera to a nearby pillar. Cover was always essential in a gunfight. He just wished that Gokudera wasn't so _heavy_, weighing down his body and making their escape seem painfully slow. It was a wonder that they managed to dodge the next few bullets that had gone wide off mark.

Basil was missing, but he didn't have time to be concerned. Gokudera was bleeding and groaning in pain.

"Shh," Tsuna whispered, tightening his clutch on his friend's shoulder in empathy.

Gokudera clamped his lips shut, but the expression on his face was enough to let Tsuna know the agony he was going through. Trials of blood covered the floor. "T-Tsuna. You need to g-go. Leave me."

"_Gokudera_!" Tsuna whispered angrily - a scandalized tone evident in his voice. They had already gone over this. "We're _friends_." And as if to emphasize that last point, he pressed his hand a bit more harshly than needed to try to stem the outflow of blood. It wasn't doing much good. There was so much blood. Gokudera looked paler, his breath growing ragged. Tsuna's heart raced even faster.

'_He's going to die..._'

'_No, he can't die._'

'_Please, don't!_'

He glared angrily at the wound, willing it to disappear. His mittens were soaked in red.

'_PLEASE!_'

And then, Tsuna blinked because he swore his gloves were glowing. Apparently Gokudera noticed the same thing, a "wha?" escaping from his lips. Flames engulfed Tsuna's hand and the boy almost retracted them in alarm if his instincts didn't tell him to keep still. Surprisingly, the flames didn't hurt.

For him at least.

Gokudera, on the other hand, let out another groan of pain which finally prompted Tsuna to move his hands away. The blood had stopped, sealed by the flames - although he was slightly disgusted by the smell of burnt flesh. He looked at Gokudera whose eyes had shut closed from either the pain or the sleeping gas.

Tsuna bit his lips, he wasn't quite sure how he was going to move his larger friend out. And he was getting sleepy himself. The sharp cracks of more gunshots were the only thing that kept him awake and alert - it was almost an instinctual response now.

"BRATS, ARE YOU THERE?"

Tsuna tried to look around for the source of the too-familiar voice. "LAL?" He shouted back.

More gunshots. The sound of shoes meeting against tile. A click, reload. They were not too close, but not too far away.

"STAY PUT!"

"GOKUDERA'S HURT!"

A string of Italian curses pierced the air, half of which Tsuna still couldn't understand.

More footsteps, increasing in frantic activity. Tsuna clutched Gokudera closer towards him. The flames on his hand seemed to die down - now they were less visible than ever. But the footsteps were still drawing close.

He checked the time - 6:35. His flight would have arrived in five minutes. His trip home had been so close to his grasp, but now he would just settle for getting out of this alive.

"There you are," another familiar voice called out from behind. Tsuna whipped around, and relaxed somewhat when he saw the face of his escort earlier, Turmeric. The look in his eye didn't feel quite right though.

"Where's Lal? And Basil?"

A large arm reaching out for him was the man's only response. His body movements were jerky, ungraceful, and obvious - allowing Tsuna to read the move seconds ahead of time and scramble out of the way. Something was definitely wrong.

"Turmeric?"

"Not quite, kid. Just renting this body."

Tsuna didn't quite understand, he was nowhere near fluent in Italian besides for the bits and pieces he had picked up from his companions. It didn't help that the voice seemed muffled under the heavy temptation of sleep that fogged his mind. His eyelids drooped halfway closed.

'_No! Stay awake!_' He chided to himself in vain. Another grab, this time successful, captured his shirt and dragged him towards the larger man. He doubled his struggle and cried out as much as possible in hopes that someone, _anyone_, would come.

And in his panic, he didn't quite notice his gloves light up again. The other man screamed in pain and threw him backwards onto the floor. Darkness took over.

* * *

When he came to, he was once again greeted by the familiar sight of long metal rods of steel - a prison cell. His head was throbbing with pain and his wrists were encircled with something cold and metallic. The feeling of _bad bad bad_ quickly sharpened his mind into alert.

"Oh? Kufufu, it seems like the newest arrival is awake."

* * *

**A/N: **So sorry for the delay in this! I had a ton of computer problems and I lost the file to the chapter, so I had to re-write it which is always frustrating for me. Especially action scenes, since I'm always super nervous about writing those.

Before anyone asks, no, Mukuro did not kidnap Tsuna. He's still about 9-10. Not quite old enough to do his own kidnapping yet.

As always, feedback/reviews are always good motivation-fuel and remind me that "oh, people are still reading this, I should probably update." Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **I don't own KHR plzkthx

"underline" = italian speaking

'_italics_' = thoughts

"normal" = japanese speaking

* * *

Tsuna traced the new voice to a shadowy figure to his left. His eyes were immediately drawn to the gleaming red eye that seemed to glow in the darkness. As eerie as that was, Tsuna was more drawn to the emotions within that eye - emotions that were so strong and tangible that he could almost feel the pain and hurt and so many years of agony - _struggling to escape just to be pulled back into that damning cycle of suffering_ - sucking him in until he had to gasp and back away.

"W-who are you?"

The other boy let out that odd laugh once more and leaned in to cup Tsuna's chin with his cold, slim fingers. "Mukuro. Rokudo Mukuro. And you, little Japanese boy? What are you doing so far from home?"

His first instinct was to recoil from the contact, but those fingers held firm and that single red eye captivated his attention as the other boy's raspy voice whispered in his ear. It then slowly registered in Tsuna's mind that this boy was speaking in Japanese.

"You know Japanese?" He really should have figured - lately, he seemed to have the strangest luck running into japanese-speaking foreigners. However, before the other boy could respond, the swishing sound of a door opening caught the attention of both boys. Mukuro released his hold, and shifted away, disappearing back into the darkness.

"We'll find out soon anyways," He whispered, an aloft tone of amusement evident in his voice.

A rough hand grabbed him and despite his token attempt at struggling, Tsuna was roughly thrown against a cold surgical table. Metal straps quickly imprisoned his wrist and ankles, holding him immobile. A bright light flashed in front of his face, blinding him. He realized that the rapid pounding he was hearing was the sound of his own heart, racing a mile a minute.

"Is he the one?" Tsuna heard a voice, rough and deep - male, he presumes - and close. They're hovering over him, hidden by the blinding light that shined on his prone body. He wanted to cry out for his Basil, for Gokudera, for Lal, for his father, but he kept silent instead and just listened to the sound of his heartbeat, willing it to calm down. Panic never helps, Reborn has drilled this lesson into him as much as possible and Tsuna figured hey, maybe the baby is right.

He strains to hear bits and pieces of their conversation, but they're whispering now and it's all garbled to him - his Italian is woefully limited. While the other men behind the light look seemingly distracted, he tried to shift his head to scan around the room, hoping to spot that familiar red glow. He wanted to call out that other boy's name too - Mukuro, he remembered, Rokudo Mukuro - but at the same time, he felt that it would be a hopeless cause to do so.

'_Help...anyone please...I just want to go home_' He wants to see his mother again, he wants to have sleepovers with Gokudera where they can actually sleep in without consequence, and he even would settle with just being safe in his father's arms again.

But then a syringe entered his arm and he felt a searing liquid being injected into his veins. He kept his body from automatically lashing out because if he did, the needle will only jerk around more. So instead, he screamed, paralyzed by fear, right before his world exploded into flames.

* * *

The next time his eyes open, the first thing Tsuna noticed was that he was still strapped to the table with his body aching like it does after a rough training session from Reborn. The second thing he noticed was that red eye, staring at him with amusement once again. The light overhead has dimmed to a manageable level, enough so that he can catch a better glimpse of the blue haired boy who stepped closer to the table with a clipboard.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi," the boy read out, enunciating every syllable as if he were sampling the name on his tongue. "Son of Sawada Iemitsu," He looked up from the clipboard and once again reached out to _touch_. Tsuna couldn't stop the shiver that ran up his spine when Mukuro's finger trailed his neck. "In other words, you're _mafia_. But what's a little Vongola doing here?"

Vongola - the word was familiar to Tsuna's ears. He had heard of it spoken in passing, always in Italian, but he had always assumed that it meant something else. Tsuna knew that his father was involved in the mafia, the signs of it were horribly blatant no matter how much anyone tried to hide it, but it still felt odd hearing from this blue haired boy.

It struck him that he was truly deep in his father's world now.

"I...I don't know," Tsuna answered honestly.

"Did they abandon you as well?" The touch of a single finger trailing his jawline changes to the firm grip of a bony hand around his throat. "Should I just put you out of your misery now?"

Mukuro was surprised to find that Tsuna's pulse was as calm as ever. Innocent brown eyes stared back at him. "You won't," Tsuna's voice spoke with a confidence he never knew he had, "because I don't want to die."

The hand on his throat moved to brush back Mukuro's own hair as the other boy let out a deep laugh. It only took a moment for Mukuro to recompose himself, and he looked back at Tsuna like he was a very interesting specimen. "Oh, but you _will_ soon enough."

Tsuna felt his gut tighten, but he ignored it. Fear wouldn't help him now. Instead, he focused on that captivating red eye that now seemed to gain a malicious aura.

"Subject showed an affinity for emitting dying will flames, which were especially visible when the subject was distressed," Mukuro began to read from the clipboard once more, "Initial trials indicated potential for this effect to be harnessed and perhaps reproduced in other subjects. No kill orders are in effect."

Somehow, the "no kill orders" did not put the younger boy at ease - Mukuro had practically scoffed at the last sentence.

"Pity, not even they will kill you." It was another voice - quiet and subdued. Tsuna tried to squint into the darkness to catch sight of who was speaking, but he could only see the rows of iron bars shrouded by shadows.

"Heh, at least they _know_ what they want to do with you." And yet another voice, from the same direction, but much more loud and brash.

Mukuro turned knowingly towards the direction of the voices. "Ken, Chikusa, you're both awake. Perfect. This is our new cell block companion, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Call me Tsuna," he intruded almost reflexively. Then, he paused. "Wait, you all know Japanese?"

The first voice spoke again. "Mukuro-sama taught us. It's our secret language...well, not so secret anymore."

"It's okay, it's obvious the boy doesn't know Italian. Our secrets are safe." Mukuro cut in smoothly, and the confused look on Tsuna's face only confirmed his suspicions.

"Are you...are you guys stuck here too?"

The voice to his right broke out into a fit of delirious laughter. "Like we'd stay here _willingly_ and let them treat us like _animals_, what do you think this is? A daycare?" Tsuna winced at the response, and he was sure the boy that the voice belonged to could see it, because the voice continued with its speech as furious as ever. "But you'll find out soon enough, you'll find out when they start stick needle after needle into your skin and ask 'can you move your fingers?' and you won't even be able to reply because everything _hurts_ too goddamn MUCH!"

Tsuna couldn't hide his trembling now, because he knew the voice was speaking with bitter honesty. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he whispers. But somehow, the other boy manages to hear him and this only serves to fuel his rage.

"Why are you sorry? You have _no clue_ what we've been through!"

"He will soon enough." It's the other voice, quiet but audible.

"Shut up! No one asked you Kakipi!"

"Now, now, boys-"

"Because it's _sad_! Because no one should be stuck here! Because you've been here alone in this cold cell while I've been outside with my family and warm hugs and homemade cooking and-" crazy tutors and insane training regimens that he's now somehow looking back at _fondly_, "and...it's just not fair!"

His outburst seemed to have stun the other boys into silence. "It's just not fair" was just such an innocent, childish statement, foreign now after years of imprisonment. Tsuna noticed the slight widening of Mukuro's eyes before they shift once again to an impassive half-lidded look of amusement. "Then, Sawada Tsunayoshi, what will you do about it?"

Tsuna frowned, because as hard as he tried to tug at the straps on his wrist, they refused to budge. Still, he had hope. "I'll escape. _We'll_ escape. Somehow." He looked straight at Mukuro with as much confidence as he could muster. "After all, you're free."

And Mukuro laughed once more. Tsuna noticed that the other boy began to blur, and he blinked, wondering if it was just a trick of his eyes. But Mukuro only continued to blur further, fading away more and more every second. "Don't you know Tsunayoshi-kun? This is just an illusion."

Then, the other boy was gone, and Tsuna was alone once more.

'_But don't worry, we'll meet again._'

* * *

The next day was agonizingly long. They stripped him bare besides his boxers and - oddly enough - the gloves on his hands. His cheeks are red with embaressment, but that is soon replaced by fear as a needle approaches him. The tip dug into his arm, and to his surprise, it didn't penetrate. But it _scrapped_, causing him to yell out as the needle meticulously carves perfectly straight lines through his skin.

A bar code.

Tsuna bit his lip, and he reminded himself, _'I'll escape, we'll escape, Dad will come for me. Dad and Basil and Gokudera and maybe even Lal and Reborn...'_

* * *

His lips were dry and his throat was beyond sore from the screaming. He was tired, and he couldn't even remember the last time he had water. So when one of his captors comes in, he's painfully attentive. They don't have water, but they do have a blond boy bundled in what looked like a straight jacket. The boy growled and fidgeted in his restraints, but they easily forced him back into a cell. Behind those angry animalistic noises, Tsuna can sense fear and desperation and, finally, resignation.

When the captors leave, a familiar voice comes from the cell. "Oy, Kakipi! You there?"

Silence.

"Ch."

Tsuna can almost imagine the frown on the boy's face, and he's surprised a single syllable can convey so many emotions - disappointment, betrayal, loneliness. It makes Tsuna want to reach out, so he does.

"Ken? Or is it Chikusa?"

The other boy doesn't reply for a while, and Tsuna almost gives up hope. But he hears an exhale, and then, "It's Ken. Joshima Ken, remember it newbie!"

Tsuna's throat is still sore, but he ignored it - he's ignoring so many things lately, but it can't be helped because if he dwells on it, he won't be able to focus on Ken whose voice still sounds so lonely and insecure despite its outward arrogance. "Joshima Ken...a Japanese name. But you don't look Japanese?"

"Mukuro-sama gave it to me."

"Oh." And Tsuna's mind goes back to the memories of the searing pain of the needle, engraving a different type of name - one made of jumbled, insignificant letters and numbers. He wondered what it would be like to not have a name, to only have a label, a constant reminder of their imprisonment. It's not something he wanted to linger upon. So instead, he comments, "You have pretty hair, it's rare...in Japan." And in a way, it reminded Tsuna of Gokudera, whose cheerful companionship he desperately misses, but he doesn't mention that.

"It's a mess."

"Not as messy as mine," Tsuna insisted, "people say that mine would be a perfect bird's nest."

"Heh, how does it even stick up like that naturally? Are you sneaking hair gel in here?"

Ken sounds much more cheerful now, and Tsuna smiled despite the accusations at his hair. This sort of playful banter was a welcomed relief to the hours of methodical testing with only foreign noises as his only entertainment. "It just...does. How does Mukuro's hair look like such a _pineapple_?" Tsuna challenged with a hint of playfulness.

And Ken broke out into a laugh, a real one. It's contagious, because Tsuna found himself laughing as well, until it devolves into a throat-wrenching cough and then, a companionable silence.

* * *

They have some kind of machine covering his arms so that he can't even see them under the metal. The captors mutter between themselves and Tsuna knew that something horrible was coming.

His body was covered in electrodes and needles that drew blood and pumped who knows what right into his veins. Even moving an inch was painful, because it jostled the needles and reminded him that being a human pincushion was as painful as the job description sounded. But even if he wanted to move, he couldn't. There was a fog clouding his mind, seemingly disconnecting it from his body. But it was an unfair trade, it didn't block the pain, it simply trapped him in his own mind, helpless to do anything.

Tsuna had never felt so helpless, not even when he was trapped in that suitcase or brutally knocked down repeatedly by Reborn_. _He _hated_ it, this inability to do anything. To resist, to save himself, to save Ken, Mukuro, and that other boy - Chikusa was it? For now, he could only wait for someone else to save him-

_"Did they abandon you as well?" _

-and do his best to crush that malicious voice in his head that wondered if Mukuro's words were becoming true.

He was almost thankful when they literally shocked him out of his thoughts. Screams ripped through his throat as his whole body heated up in a familiar warmth. It was almost comforting - the way the flames licked his hands like a curious puppy. But then the pain only intensified, as did the flames, until they too began to _hurt_ and lash about wildly.

The machines sucked them in greedily, whirling to life. Tsuna spotted a screen with a red bar fill up completely and then, surprisingly, it exploded. His mind drifted off into unconsciousness with a smug sense of satisfaction as the lab technicians scurried about frantically.

* * *

**A/N: **And with this, we're over 20,000 words now. Longest fic I've written ever, I'm half amazed I've managed to go on this long.

This chapter was the hardest for me to write so far because I was nervous to death about writing Mukuro and his gang without making it seem too sappy or corny. These boys are just so fascinating to me. They've been experimented _their entire lives_, so I'm sure they have their fair share of issues that I want to fairly represent. Tsuna's going to have to tread carefully, but hey, at least he has Hyper Intuition to help him.

I'm sure everyone else is curious about what the hell is happening with the rest of the Vongola while Tsuna's getting experimented on. Just for my personal reference, who's current status are you guys most curious about? Lal? Iemitsu? Nana? Gokudera? Leon? (lol, j/k obviously) Unintroduced characters don't count of course (Hibari, Yamamoto, etc. will all come later in the story, some sooner than you would expect actually). I'll take your opinions into consideration when writing the next chapters.

Any feedback is appreciated, reviews are delicious omnomnom *V*


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